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Meta-Morphosis – Facebook’s Financial Feats and Internal Turmoil

Is this a good or bad time for Meta/Facebook?

Last week, Meta (aka Facebook) beat expectations for first-quarter profit and revenue, resulting in a 13%+ surge in its shares.
The company added over $50 billion to its market value.
Meta’s stock has gained 98% year-to-date, while the S&P 500 is up 8% over the same period.

I know what you’re thinking… “I thought Meta/Facebook was dying?!?”

At the same time, employees (and others) are calling for the head of Mark Zuckerberg, who has been accused of being out-of-touch with his team members, lacking a proper vision for “what’s next,” and missing some key plays in how the tech space has evolved in recent years.

Why does Wall Street love this?

According to the news sources:

Consistent growth in the user base.
A strong business model.
This focus on optimizing costs… or letting go of many employees, is often loved by the players of stocks.
Integration of AI tools to optimize newsfeed and advertising opportunities.
A newly announced share repurchase program worth $40 billion.

What is this “year of efficiency”?

Meta plans to eliminate 21,000 jobs and flatten its middle-management structure.
This is 1/4 of its workforce.
And, all of this is happening at a time when companies seems to be shifting from CX (customer experience) to EX (employee experience) – check out Tiffani Bova’s upcoming book, The Experience Mindset.
Now, more than ever, companies are doing everything that they can to reverse the trend of employee dissatisfaction.
Won’t it make the current employees more disenfranchised, as their team members are let go and the stress lingers for their own future?
Yes… and… when you remove so many jobs, you may actually find a core group of people left who really want to be there… and believe in the company’s purpose and vision.

What about Meta’s big bet on the metaverse?

Well, I’d recommend taking a listen to this recent episode of Six Pixels of Separation – The ThinkersOne Podcast with the “Godmother of the Metaverse,” Cathy Hackl.
Cathy is the founder and Chief Metaverse Officer at Journey, along with being the author of The Augmented Workforce, Navigating the Metaverse, and her latest book, Into The Metaverse.
We discuss, debate and don’t always agree the future of the metaverse.
For Meta (and others), there is no clear path to the metaverse (yet).
Portal was discontinued in 2022.
The Meta Quest devices have not been profitable for the company, with $13+ billion in operating costs last year.
Plus, Apple is rumored to launch a VR device of their own in June.
Will the customers/users follow?

What’s next for Meta?

This is what Elias Makos and I discussed on CJAD 800 AM this week. Listen in right here.

Mitch Joel · Meta-Morphosis – Facebook’s Financial Feats and Internal Turmoil

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Mitch Joel

Mitch Joel lives at the intersection of technology, business transformation and consumer culture. He is the Executive Director of Next Era Institute, a strategic intelligence platform helping leaders understand the forces reshaping business, technology, culture and society. The Institute identifies which shifts matter, explores their wider significance and translates them into strategic direction and momentum. Mitch is also a globally recognized keynote speaker. He has delivered thousands of presentations across both B2B and B2C industries to organizations including Google, Walmart, LEGO, Shopify, Microsoft, Procter & Gamble and Unilever. Strategy Magazine has called him “one of North America’s leading visionaries.” Mitch built his career by working directly inside the waves of change that reshaped modern business. He founded and built a digital marketing agency that worked with some of the world’s largest brands and was later acquired by WPP, where he served as President of a firm operating in 25 countries with almost 3,000 employees. Mitch is the bestselling author of Six Pixels of Separation and CTRL ALT Delete, and the host of Thinking With Mitch Joel, one of the longest-running business podcasts in the world. His writing and commentary appear in outlets including Harvard Business Review, Fast Company and Inc. Magazine. He is a member of Dr. Marshall Goldsmith’s 100 Coaches and was named to the Thinkers50 Radar. Mitch also hosts Groove – The No Treble Podcast, documenting the oral history of electric bass players. Mitch is also Co-Founder of ThinkersOne, a platform that enables companies to bring personalized thought leadership from world-class experts into meetings, events and off-sites in focused 15-minute bursts.